The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: ponylady on July 13, 2014, 04:29:30 pm
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My girls were being fed D&H Layers Pellets (plus corn and veggies at tea time) and were laying me a respectable 8 - 10 eggs each day. None of the layers are in moult. Three weeks ago I (stupidly?) bought a cheaper brand of layers pellets, thinking they were all the same. I did a gradual change over, but they didn't really like them at first, and now their egg production has reduced to around 4 eggs per day. >:(
I know its been hot and they've been occasionally a bit scratchy with each other, but I don't think its that .... And they haven't, to my knowledge, been stressed or frightened.
Has anyone else found that changing the poultry feed has impacted on egg production?
I've just gone out and bought them their preferred feed and am keeping my fingers crossed that things improve over the next couple of weeks.
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Not sure if it is just the time of year, or something else, but from my 6 'red hens' I am now only getting 2 a day. Their food hasn't changed, so maybe just a coincidence?
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My 26 hens have also gone from 19-22 a day right down to 12-15 so might just be the time of year...
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Unless you provide 14 hours' light a day hens will lay in tune with the seasons. Most eggs will be laid from mid to late Spring, which will give them enough time to raise the chicks to full size in preparation for Winter. The eggs, and their fertility, will gradually decline as the year progresses. Hens in their second year will usually moult in July or August, unless stressed. They will usually cease to lay as their bodies will struggle to produce new feathers at the same time as eggs.
We normally hatch late March to July and the birds will be strong enough to withstand the Winter on our windy hilltop and start laying early to mid Winter. We normally breed from them the following Spring and sell them before their first moult. They will have a long and productive life for their new owners but egg production will drop during their second Winter.
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I've got one pen gone into moult - although the third hen from that pen is brooding which is slightly odd timing.
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Hesterf I've had 4 hens go broody this week :rant:
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We are still getting over 16 hours of daylight ......
I thought my new (April) group of ex farm hens had moulted/ grown all their new feathers a while back ...
But I checked a couple over and they have new growth, so am putting it down to that ...
I must have had a senior moment and should have checked the girls .. :innocent:
But everything coincided with having been on a cheaper food a full 2 weeks .... ::)
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Thanks everyone for your help :chook: :eyelashes:
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You won't be the first person who has discovered cheap feed is actually far more expensive long term Ponylady. When the hens eat less and it has less nutritional value anyway, they lay less. Also the eggs are now full of three permitted chemical colourants and the taste is lost so no improvement over supermarket battery eggs. So people stop buying them from you.
We have found you can't cut corners with feed quality.
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I have gone straight back to my better quality feed ... and am sticking to it!